Developing a toolkit to enable positive ecological site management and resident well-being in Housing Association developments

The natural world as a fascinating feature of towns and cities has a long history (e.g. Fitter 1945), and has also played a strong part in local biological conservation in some countries over the late 20th Century (Goode, 2016). In addition to this long tradition, an abundance of research findings that could help promote biodiversity in towns and cities also exists; however, it is not necessarily the case that this research is regularly put into practice. At the same time, urban areas throughout the UK include deprived areas, and there is evidence that such locations may miss out on the benefits associated with access to high-quality green space and a biodiverse environment (Public Health England, 2014).

Our project will produce a simple, clear toolkit of materials and approaches that will enable Housing Association (HA) estate managers to (i) better manage their sites for biodiversity; (ii) better understand how their sites link into the local environment; and (iii) understand the many ways in which residents and staff can contribute to wider environmental monitoring by recording species on the sites that they manage. These objectives will not only have immediate benefits for biodiversity in and around HA sites, but also have the potential to improve the quality of life of the residents. Residents on the Bracknell case study site have already expressed a strong interest in understanding how to improve their neighbourhood for wildlife. Our advice will be based on the findings of biodiversity and health researchers, thereby ensuring that proposed changes to HA site management have the best chance of working for both biodiversity and the mental and physical well-being of HA residents and staff.

Our toolkit will comprise a selection of simple steps that HAs can follow to create wildlife friendly areas, such as planting and management advice. Alongside this management information, ideas and tools for promoting a greater appreciation and knowledge of wildlife by residents will also be provided. These will be demonstrated by events held on the case study site in Bracknell. The toolkit will be developed through our close working relationship with SHG, with input from other stakeholders (see below), to ensure that the suggestions are practical, and have the best chance of providing a sounds basis for enhanced HA site management for biodiversity, and enhanced access to wildlife recording networks, across the whole of the UK.

The toolkit will be published online through a project website, advertised through stakeholder websites and promoted at stakeholder conferences and national conferences, such as the Association of Local Environmental Records Centres (ALERC) conference and the National Biodiversity Network conference. The promotion and uptake of such a tool has the potential to bring enhanced biodiversity and a better quality of life to thousands of the most deprived people across the UK (see the reach of our main partner, the Southern Housing Group, alone below).

Stakeholders
The project partner, Southern Housing Group (SHG) manages and owns almost 28,000 homes, with 72,000 residents. SHG is one of the largest social housing providers in southern England. Furthermore, it has close links with other HAs that could benefit from this work. There are almost 1,700 registered HAs in the UK.

Other stakeholders that have expressed support for this application are:
ALERC (letter of support and free attendance to ALERC conference to promote toolkit
Thames Valley Environmental Records Centre (letter of support and reduced consultancy fees at partner rate)
Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust (letter of support)

Keywords
Urban biodiversity, well-being, aesthetic, land management, housing, human-wildlife interactions, biological recording, mental health, green infrastructure, sustainability, grounds maintenance, natural capital, cultural services, ecosystem services, biodiversity strategy

Southern Housing Group (SHG)
SHG will take the learning from this project and look to apply it to the rest of its housing portfolio where it has responsibility for grounds maintenance, as well as acting as a developer. Additionally, SHG will share case studies, best practice and lessons learnt and the dissemination workshop with other large housing associations in the UK, along with other organisations that they partner with, including grounds maintenance contractors, managing agents and local authorities. Our project also coincides with an SHG plan to bring much grounds maintenance "in-house", meaning that this is a key moment to implement changes to practice, and to influence key personnel.

In addition, locally, both in Bracknell at the case study site and further afield, HA managers will have access to expert, research-led, guidance for the management of sites for wildlife and people. Where the management of the local environment for people seeks to maximise the benefits for wildlife, aesthetic appreciation, and mental health benefits simultaneously. It is hoped that the greater engagement between people and wildlife will lead to benefits for both.

Southern Housing Group, will also gain input to a focused, evidence-based, Biodiversity Strategy, including a template and guidance for how to approach the task for roll-out across their whole estate. Moreover, SHG will also benefit from a demonstration of potentially cost-saving grounds management that will benefit biodiversity and be accepted by residents.

Other Housing Associations
Other HAs will benefit from the development of the toolkit, evidence-base and resources, developed from the integration of our assessments at the case study site in Bracknell with the wide research-led evidence base. As noted above, the toolkit and resources will provide web-based information covering a range of topics, the implementation of which will create impacts for wildlife, cost-saving management, people's understanding and engagement with wildlife on HA sites, and the creation of HA or site-specific biodiversity strategies.

Local and National Environmental Records Centres
These organisations will benefit from better and more extensive integration of biodiversity monitoring with those implementing applied ecological management over large areas, specifically HA land. This project is a key opportunity for such centres to promote responsible ecological decision making based on the best available local environmental information, and, in turn, to receive information about urban areas and HA sites that are not likely to have been well studied or recorded in the past. Better connections and understanding between HAs, housing developers, and LERCs will also provide benefits for downstream uses of biological records e.g. for better-informed biodiversity offsetting.

Specifically for the CEH national Biological Records Centre (www.brc.ac.uk), the close working relationship developed with SHG through this project, and, more broadly, national organisations representing other HAs, will bring our work, and the work of the volunteer biological recording community that BRC represents, to new audiences. This work could lead to future initiatives providing local and national socio-economic benefits, particularly in under-represented, and potentially deprived, urban areas.

Local Authorities (LAs)
As noted by the UK Government, "[l]ocal authorities play a vital role in the conservation of biodiversity" (Defra, 2014), and our toolkit will assist LAs in discharging their biodiversity duty under the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006